Hanoi

Hanoi

Matt flew to Hanoi on Friday morning for business. He was incredibly excited for the opportunity to travel internationally again - that is exactly why we joined the foreign service. Since the kids' diagnosis, we have been forced to remain stateside. It is the best decision for our family, but we constantly miss the way things were "supposed to be".

My parents came down for the weekend to help and my mom is staying for a few extra days. Then we will road trip it to PA for a few more days until returning home to greet Matt at the airport. I can't wait for our reunion.

Matt emailed this morning. He is safe in Hanoi. He spent the day exploring the city with some coworkers. He is having a wonderful time.

Comments

The Leivas said…

The picture of Waverly and Oliver together is adorable! Oliver's elbow didn't look out of place at all till you mentioned it!

I to can relate to that feeling of missing the way things were supposed to be. When Olivia was dignosed Mike had to turn down a 3 year assignment in Italy. Really gives "welcome to holland" new meaning.

March 21, 2011 at 7:09 AM

Evelyn Quinonez said…

Thank you for sharing your experience as a parent of two beautiful children such as yours. I came to this page unintentionally but found your story inspiring and heartfelt.

Sincerely
Evelyn Quinonez

July 17, 2011 at 10:44 PM

Welcome to Holland

By Emily Perl Kingsley

I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this......When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland.""Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around.... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills....and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy... and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned."And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away... because the loss of that dream is a very very significant loss.But... if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things ... about Holland.